The Last
by Doupol
Summary: Well, this is the 7day countdown to the publication of 'Deathly Hallows' so I'm cutting it close, but I'd like to try and write a continuation of HBP, in seven chapters.  This is my version of the end of it all.


Disclaimer: I don't own it - I'm just borrowing it for a bit.

A/N: This is my first HP fic, and it's a little plot-bunny that's been floating around in my head since I read HBP. I keep leaving it to the last minute, so I'm finally left with putting it out in the last seven days before the real thing is released. I'll be going over it, adding more details and such, when I get the chance, and I'd love to have a beta or someone to help read over my stuff...but in the mean time, here it is! Feedback is lovurly.

A young man stood in the living room of 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, his eyes staring sightlessly out the window.

"So you're finally gone then?" a voice broke the quiet reverie, and the head of jet-black hair twisted around to look at the large, well-built boy behind him.

Harry sighed quietly. He'd been waiting for weeks to finally leave this house once and for all, but now that the time had come, he was melancholy. While Harry was probably the last person to say that his experiences with the Dursley family had been positive, it was a milestone in his life to finally be done with them – an end of an era, if you will.

"Yeah Dudley – I'm leaving for good this time" Harry replied quietly, turning back to his contemplation of the plane of glass in the window. The last month had been almost peaceful, what with the Dursley's essentially leaving him to his own devices. While there had been talk of posting a 'guard' duty once again with the members of the Order, it soon became clear that they simply did not have the man-power to sustain such a drain on resources. As a result, the young wizard was left unattended with his blood-relatives, a lone magical individual in a sea of Muggles.

What this also meant was that all and any communication with the wizarding world had also been suspended; it was safest for their to be as few indicators that a wizard lived at 4 Privet Drive as possible. So Harry had spent the last month in the dark about anything happening in the wizarding world; from Voldemort's activities to the current hair style of some famous Quidditch player, Harry didn't have a clue what was going on. It had been arranged before he left that he would be picked up the day of his birthday by Floo, so he hadn't even had an owl to look forward to in order to break the monotony. The situation reeked of similarity to previous times, when Harry had been cut off from communication with the wizarding world, and the severance stung more than he'd thought it would.

He had taken to working in the garden; weeding and planting the seasonal flowers, since he had been asked by McGonagal to avoid using anything magical in order to reduce the chance of discovery. Gardening was the closest thing he could get to magic – reminiscent times of happy classes spent in Greenhouse 3 with Madame Sprout looking over his shoulder and joking around with Hermione and Ron.

"Where are you going?" again, Harry was startled out of his musings by a voice behind him. Once he'd answered Dudley, he'd assumed that the larger boy would wander off, satisfied that the 'freak' was finally gone for good. In fact his cousin was still there, sitting awkwardly on the armrest of the divan, now joined by his parents. The question had come from Petunia, who'd treated Harry strangely the entire summer. She let him work in the garden without protest one moment, simply providing the plants and shovels, only to bark at him the next about tracking mud through the house. She never invited him to dine with the rest of the family, which – if Harry were being honest with himself- was a bit of a relief, but always made a point of leaving a plate for him on the table after they were done.

"I'm not sure" he answered truthfully. Where _would_ they be going? Grimauld Place wasn't safe anymore, since none of the Order members had come forward as the new Secret Keeper after Dumbledore's death, which left the unsettling notion that the old wizard may have passed the responsibility on to someone of less moral fibre – someone like Snape. The Burrow didn't have near enough protections on it to be the headquarters for the Order, and Harry doubted the possibility that strong enough wards had been placed on the Weaseley's home in the mere month he'd been separated from all that he know and loved.

His curiosity of the matter was soon to be satisfied however, for at that very moment, the fireplace caught alight in large green flames, which diminished to reveal a young witch with startlingly neon blue hair and purple eyes. Quickly following her was a much older man with a suspicious scowl on his face and an oddly mobile eye.

"Wotcher Harry" Tonks hailed him loudly. Moody simply nodded at him, already moving through the room and poking his wand at objects, apparently in search of mischief. Harry smiled in greeting, and started to haul his objects over to the fireplace. Tonks swiftly drew her wand and pointed it at his luggage, shrinking them until they were small enough to put in a pocket.

"Thanks" Harry said quietly. He slowly turned to look at the Dursleys, who appeared to be horrified at the displays of 'unnatural' behaviour, but still taking it much more calmly then they had yet at any of their encounters with magic.

"Well…this is it then" he said awkwardly, barely looking at them; opting instead to examine the ever-growing hole in the side of one of his trainers.

"Good riddance!" Vernon pronounced loudly, but Petunia stepped forward and actually pulled Harry into a brief, tight embrace. He stood there, stunned as she moved back a bit.

"You know where to find us, should the need arise" she told him directly, making sure to catch his eye. Too shocked to do anything else, Harry simply nodded in response.

"Let's be going then" Moody said gruffly, making his way back over to the fireplace. He pulled out a small bag, took a handful of the powder, and then tossed it over to Tonks, who promptly dropped it. He stood over the flames, threw the Floo powder onto the fire, and stated clearly "Hogwarts" as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Harry looked at Tonks, shocked – Hogwarts in the summer?!? – but she only indicated that he should go next. Taking a deep breath, he followed Moody.

Tumbling out of the fireplace, Harry just barely managed to hold himself steady as he landed in the fireplace of Minerva McGonigal's office. Stepping out quickly to allow Tonks room to arrive, he turned to the new Headmistress of Hogwarts.

"Welcome back, Mr. Potter" the transfiguration professor smiled tightly at the young man. Despite all the bad things he knew were coming, and all the struggles and tribulation he was sure to expect, Harry's middle warmed at the thought that he was back in the world he belonged.


End file.
